“Have you ever seen someone wearing Google Glass out at the bar?” John Boone asks for E! Online. “Like a real person at a real bar actually wearing Google Glass? If so, you know how absolutely ridiculous they look. Which may be the only factor we have that will stop this…”

“A new app will allow total strangers to ID you and pull up all your information, just by looking at you and scanning your face with their Google Glass,” Boone reports. “The app is called NameTag and it sounds CREEPY.”

“The ‘real-time facial recognition’ software ‘can detect a face using the Google Glass camera, send it wirelessly to a server, compare it to millions of records, and in seconds return a match complete with a name, additional photos and social media profiles,'” Boone reports. “The information listed could include your name, occupation, any social media profiles you have set up and whether or not you have a criminal record (‘CRIMINAL HISTORY FOUND’ pops up in bright red letters according to the demo).”

“Once the app officially goes live, you can sign up for NameTag and opt-out, instead of the alternative: Having to opt-in to allow them to show your information,” Boone reports. “How is that OK? …forcing people to opt-out if they want to maintain their privacy is wrong (we would go so far as to say it should be illegal).”

57 Comments

This is FANTASTIC. Now, thanks to this feature paranoia can be available not only to a terroristic spying, industrial espionage and cyber attacker organization like say the NSA but to paranoid terroristic people themselves. Oh my I do hope they incorporate the ability to identify a demoncrat from a repubican. Gauging from the posts you see here, they will essentially allow the two groups to annihilate each other. What a step forward for global peace.

“I do hope they incorporate the ability to identify a demoncrat from a republican.”

That is easy:
1-Republicans breathe through their mouths and move their lips when reading- those who can read.
2-Many Republicans knuckles will hit the floor if they rest their arms at their sides.
3-NRA life member stickers on their pickup truck.
4- The Bug Out Bag they take with them everywhere.
5-Concealed carry permit.

Liberals:
1. Spend money beyond their means to make themselves look better, possibly feel better, but then complain about not having money.
2. Never take the blame, point fingers.
3. Want to ban everything and then cannot defend themselves.

I guess that name tags at conferences are out too? How about if we all wear a burka type head covering or just a large hoody? I don’t need to hide from people and I am happy to share publicly available details of who I am. Quit hiding in the dark and skulking around doing things you are embarrassed about. Be proud of who you are.

Can you also imagine a scenario where a child with parents using that technology would see the bad person’s details and then call the police? Everyone in the neighbourhood could report the bad guy’s whereabouts to the police.

Sorry, 313, you are completely naive about this. Your first assumption is that available information on you or anyone else is accurate and truthful. I just plain isn’t. You further assume that a database for one person won’t mix with someone else’s again giving completely false information. Next, so-called “public information” is not or should not necessarily be public in the first place. This ap just perpetuates all that including false, misleading, and inaccurate information. Even if certain information really is accurate, we all should have the right to determine what is public and what isn’t.

Then, though more can and should be said about this, there is the basic privacy issue. Not you, not any company, not any ap, and certainly not any government entity should determine what is private for any individual. That right should remain with the individual. As I have before, I again refer to the 9th and 10th Amendments of the Bill of Rights for an ignored home for privacy. I would agree with Boone that this, and much else, should be illegal. Even though it already violates the Bill of Rights, as does so much else today, the US courts have seemed to ignore that protection for us. Some “right to know” was then created by the Press (and others). Those espousing such a right have greatly expanded it to cover any piece of information about anyone. Doing that overrides all other rights and ofter common sense. It should be brought into line.

This is more serious than just this one ap. Currently, it is easy to know who is wearing this device and “request” they remove it in certain venues. But all of us know than the future will bring devices that will not be noticeable at all.

Ok, a little clueless. Lets look at this from a criminals point of view. Criminal A goes to the airport and stands around. Just looking (scanning). When criminal A gets a hit in the town or area to be worked on that night. Criminal A calls B, C, D and E to get the truck gassed up. We have a house to empty tonight. Bring some beer and pizza, this may take a while.

Still Ok with this? Now, try young male going on a one day company sales trip. A quick check and he just got married and there are the wedding pictures of the real attractive bride.

Still Ok with this? Now, new baby leaving the hospital, I see where that baby is going home to now because mom posted a lot of pictures from the big day …

Wow you really are clueless. Yes, not one sees them, only Criminal A who has no record, he’s a “clean” criminal, a front man. You a demonstrating very little insight into the workings of the criminal world.

3I3c7ro is clearly an extrovert who loves attention and does not have privacy as a value. As an introvert who highly values his privacy and stays away from social media, I hate the idea of this app. I don’t want strangers to know who I am. I want to only share my identity with those whom I choose to share it with.

I know where you live, you should know by now that I live in the same place. I’m just putting a hypothetical to your comment “Those who know me know that I will never divulge their confidences and private information.” by illustrating that it’s not that hard to get people to break using torture.

I’m astonished that anybody could imagine that this is an acceptable idea. I’m even more astonished that Google doesn’t realise that this will create tremendous hostility towards Google Glass and the people who wear them in public.

Presumably the only way you can opt out is to first give your details to Google ? Anybody see the problem with that ?

Each sortie into the real world by Google is another fascinating glimpse into the ivory tower they inhabit, the flux of swirling recombinant ideas that charge their enthusiasm, the disdain for social and moral barriers they regard as walls, and their perfect narcissistic conviction that they are the future.

Apparently Google has already banned facial recognition apps, so presumably this app would be banned as well. I’m not aware of Apple having a similar ban on facial recognition apps. So when this app is released for iOS, Apple will have to make a decision as to whether they allow it or not.

And what if those same people who would ban this stuff decide to ban you? Any technology has the potential to be used for good or evil. Why is it that your first application of the technology is for evil?

Yes, special needs, alzheimer’s or dementia people could use a discrete group based on their known faces in their data base. This is much bigger. You really don’t want strangers to be able to blend in with the people that love or care for them. Evil will take this where know one wants it to go. Google states, “Do no evil” and yet they open the door to it.

An Alzheimer’s or dementia sufferer wouldn’t know who the person was even if there was a name tag, it would just give them a name to call the person. All their memories tend to revert to many years in the past, of people often long dead, so that idea is dead in the water.

Even more proof that Google might be owned by the Illuminati, or at the very least, contracted by them. All that info might possibly be sent over to the NSA’s headquarters right now as we speak. This is the change Obama has promised back in that faithful day in 2008. Are you happy, America?